Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming system, an image processing apparatus, a method of managing sheet information, and a storage medium of a program.
Background Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as printers, copiers, and multi-functional machines can be set with print setting information such as sheet size, sheet type, and image density by users, and the set print setting information is stored in non-volatile memories disposed in the image forming apparatuses. Further, the image forming apparatuses include an interface (I/F) of a portable storage medium such as universal serial bus (USB) memory and secure digital (SD) card, and the print setting information is stored in the portable storage medium attached to the I/F as backup information. With this configuration, when troubles occur to the image forming apparatuses, the print setting information can be restored on the non-volatile memory by using the print setting information stored in the portable storage medium.
Recently, image forming systems configured with a digital front end (DFE) apparatus, and one or more image forming apparatuses connected or coupled to the DFE apparatus are devised. In this image forming system, the DFE apparatus receives print data and print information from a host apparatus, performs raster image processor (RIP) processing to the print data, transfers the processed image data such as image drawing data to the image forming apparatus via a memory, and instructs the image forming apparatus to perform a printing operation.
Further, an image forming system configured with a DFE apparatus and an image forming apparatus, or an image forming apparatus configured with an image processing unit and an image forming unit can be devised, in which the DFE apparatus and the image forming apparatus can be operated independently with each other, or the image processing unit and the image forming unit in the image forming apparatus can be operated independently with each other. In these configurations, setting information (hereinafter, image processing setting information) at the DFE apparatus and the image processing unit (hereinafter, DFE apparatus, image processing apparatus), and setting information (hereinafter, engine adjustment information) at the image forming apparatus and the image forming unit (hereinafter, image forming apparatus) can be set independently with each other, and the image processing setting information can be stored in a non-volatile memory disposed for the DFE apparatus, and engine adjustment information can be stored in a non-volatile memory disposed for the image forming apparatus independently.
Further, the setting information includes attribution information of sheet to be used at both of the DFE apparatus and the image forming apparatus as the same sheet information. Therefore, the DFE apparatus stores the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information, and the image forming apparatus stores the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information.
In this configuration, the DFE apparatus includes an interface (I/F) of a portable storage medium, and the image forming apparatus also includes an interface (I/F) of a portable storage medium, in which the DFE apparatus can store the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information to the portable storage medium attached to the I/F of the DFE apparatus, and the image forming apparatus can store the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information to the portable storage medium attached to the I/F of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the DFE apparatus can store the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information to the portable storage medium as the print setting information, and the image forming apparatus can store the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information to the portable storage medium as the print setting information, which can be performed separately or independently.
With this configuration, when troubles occur to the DFE apparatus or image forming apparatus in the image forming system, the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information can be restored to the non-volatile memory in the DFE apparatus by using the print setting information stored in the portable storage medium, and further, the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information can be restored the non-volatile memory at the image forming apparatus by using the print setting information stored in the portable storage medium.
However, in this conventional configuration, the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information of the DFE apparatus is stored in one portable storage medium attachable to the interface (I/F) of the DFE apparatus while the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information of the image forming apparatus is stored in another portable storage medium attachable to the interface (I/F) of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information of the DFE apparatus, and the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information of the image forming apparatus are required to be to synchronized, in which integrity of setting information between different storage media may become difficult to attain, and handling of the setting information may become complex works for users.
For example, when the storing timing such as backup timing of the setting information to the portable storage media are different between the DFE apparatus and the image forming apparatus, discrepancies may occur between the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information set for the DFE apparatus, and the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information set for the image forming apparatus. In this case, the discrepancies are required to be solved by manual operations of users by synchronizing the image processing setting information and the sheet attribution information set for the DFE apparatus, and the engine adjustment information and the sheet attribution information set for the image forming apparatus, which are complex works for users.